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. 2022 Jul 27;14(8):1564. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14081564

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Engagement of adaptive immune response after immunogenic cell death in a tumor. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and photodynamic therapy can induce immunogenic cell death (ICD), which is a programmed cell death accompanied by the exposure of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). This can occur, for instance, as a consequence of oxidative stress in the endoplasmic reticulum. Some DAMPs, such as heat-shock protein (HSP)70, HSP90, and calreticulin are exposed on the plasma membrane, while others such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), high mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1), C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10) and annexin A1 (ANXA-1) are released to the extracellular medium. DAMPs then activate pattern recognition receptors of dendritic cells (DCs) and other antigen-presenting cells. This culminates in the maturation of the DCs and in the recruitment and activation of T cells. In this way, ICD can trigger or boost an adaptive antitumor immune response.